Household and industrial spots and stains are unattractive and can damage paint finishes on household surfaces, automobiles, trucks, machines, wood, siding, and other surfaces. It is desirable to clean these types of stains in an economical manner. Many spray cleaners have limited contact times because they tend to run down the surface and/or the solvent may evaporate. Running exacerbates the problem by spreading the stain and causing streaks to appear on the surface. Consequently, several applications may be required to remove the stain. Additionally, one of the major components of many spray cleaners is distilled or deionized water. The production of distilled water involves essentially the evaporation and later collection of pure water away from the impurities contained within the impure water. Deionization of water involves the removal of charged particles from water by bringing it in contact with some reacting, deionizing material. These processes require time expenditure and energy consumption and thus add to the cost of product preparation.
An example of the use of a particular type of pure water is found in U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,741,481 and 5,853,730, to Picken. These patents teach the use of citrus water distillate, produced as orange juice is made into concentrate. Such use of a previously unused resource reduces the cost of product preparation and provides additional advantages due to components found in the distillate itself.
The Church patent, U.S. Pat. No. 4,315,828, teaches the use of a cleaning compound that is composed mainly of water and contains a minor cleaning component such as ammonium hydroxide or a lower alcohol.
The Bayless patent, U.S. Pat. No. 5,330,673, teaches the use of a cleaning compound that is composed of 80-97.5% d-limonene and 2.5-20% of cocamide DEA/dihexyl sodium sulfosuccinate.
Therefore there is a need in the art for a cleaner that is expelled from the container in mist or liquid form, which, upon contact with a surface, forms a gel material capable of retaining its shape for a more than brief period of time. Such a gel material would be advantageous in that instead of evaporating quickly or running off, it would allow extended contact time with the dirty and/or stained surface, thereby more quickly and effectively cleaning the surface and breaking down the stain. It is to meet this and other heretofore unmet needs that the present invention is directed.